Charged With Felony After Taping 4 Minutes Of “New Moon”

The Sun-Times is reporting that a 22-year-old Chicago woman has been arrested and charged with a felony after taping 4 minutes of “New Moon” during her sister’s surprise 29th birthday party.

Managers saw the woman taping and called the police, who examined the camera (a digital still camera that also takes short video segments) and say they found “two very short segments” that totaled no more than 4 minutes.

The theater managers decided to press charges, so the woman spent two nights in jail and faces up to three years in prison.

That’s like getting caught shoplifting a pair of Croqs. Embarrassing to the hilt.
I haven’t seen New Moon, but I’ve seen many movies where I’m blinded when people pull up their cell phone and text, check their messages or do whatever… No sympathy at all here.

This is exactly the kind of bullshit abuse of patrons that makes me hate the MPAA & the RIAA. A felony? What the hell has happened to equitable jurisprudence and justice? And what the hell is wrong with the theater owners/managers?

Granted, I hate dealing with cell phones and the like in the theater, but I think we can all agree that it should be dealt with outside of the courts. I’d support tickets with a punch-to-the-head waiver for violations.

You want proof there was no intent to violate copyright, etc? It’s the new ‘Twilight’ movie – no one wants to pirate that piece of crap. Ha!

These days they call the cops/SWAT/National Guard for the most insignificant bullshit.
I know it’s not everywhere and everyday like that but sometimes I’m really happy I don’t live in USA. I’ll be soon going through Miami airport for a transit though, and they’ll take my fingerprints and photograph and have me fill a form where they ask whether I’m a terrorist/child rapist/nazi/serial killer. For a friggin’ transit where I’ll not even be outside the airport.

Theater managers can’t decide to press charges, they can decide to call the police and the prosecutor’s office charges them. This actually makes it worse, because a taxpayer-salaried prosecutor said “yeah, we should try and nail them with a felony for accidentally taping four minutes of random crap inside a theater.”

It also drives me nuts that the state has decided to protect corporate intellectual property at this level. If she’s not selling it, she shouldn’t get in criminal trouble for taping it. Let the MPAA sue her if it’s that important to them.